Most people see Facebook as another way to reach out to friends. Research has shown that Facebook is fast becoming one of the addictions for people living in the United Kingdom (along with beer, coffee and free newspapers… sounds familiar?).
However, I am not sure that many people see Facebook as a tool for reaching out to their (existing and new) customers. The fact is, Facebook (and other networking sites) have become indispensable tools for growing your business today. And this applies to large multinationals, FMCGs or even the High Street Shop.
Most large businesses have a marketing strategy: this is like a Bible that helps them define what they want to do to reach out to their customers. And for some other businesses, there is also, what is called a PR (i.e. Public Relations) Strategy. This defines how they go about communicating news and interesting facts about their businesses.
If your business is going to succeed (no matter how big/small), then you must have either a marketing strategy and/or a PR strategy. Or you can have them combined. And whatever you do, your strategy(ies) must, going forward, include presence in the following:
- Networking sites: a good number of businesses have their representatives taking an active part in many a networking site. Amongst the favourites are Facebook, Linkedin, Xing, Plaxo, Twitter, Hi5. Look out for the likes of Apple, Recruitment Companies, Sony Ericsson, Nokia in these sites.
- Blogging: in the old days, companies got journalists and other ‘anonymous’ writers to offer ‘unbiased’ reviews about their products and services in Newspapers and Journals. The idea? It gives some form of credibility to have someone – whose opinions are trusted by a majority of people – to give an opinion (good or bad … but mostly good) on your products and services. Today, the trend is to send out information about your goods and services to professional bloggers. And these are able to do, online, the same thing that is done in the newspapers and journals. A good trick of the trade here is to ‘leak out your secrets’ to these blogs in such a way that it creates the suspense that is associated with gossip columns (believe it or not, gossip sells!). Companies (big and small), and their executives also have their (un)official blogs. Ask Google, Bill Gates; and Apple , and they’ll tell you about the importance of blogs.
- Online Groups: there are so many groups on the net. And you want to take advantage of as many of these as possible to further your interests. Sites like Facebook, Linkedin, and Xing, do very well in this regard. And there are other sites that just focus on discussions. Some examples include Microsoft’s TechNet, Yahoo Groups, and Nairaland (for Nigerians). It is important to identify groups that house people who are most likely to be interested in you and your business. And you have to be careful to word your discussions and comments properly so as not to offend others. I shall deal on the issue of your choice of words in another article.
In conclusion, whether you are Shell or Sanford & Son, you need to start thinking about your strategy for getting yourself out there and using the Internet to reach your customers.
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I would be glad to know what, in your opinion, are the other methods of reaching customers online. Please feel free to share this article with anyone that would find the information useful.
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